The present invention relates to a planar waveguide film member for integrated optical systems, of the type including a carrier substrate having a certain index of refraction on which is applied a film having a greater index of refraction to substantially guide the waves.
Optical waves are used as signal carriers in the optical communications art. Currently, the most important transmitters are semiconductor lasers and the most important receivers are photodiodes. A light conductive fiber is used as the transmission medium and operates as a dielectric waveguide to propagate the light radiation, or waves. This technique of pure transmission of communications signals requires, of course, at the transmitting and at the receiving end, components which can process the respective communications signals in a suitable manner.
To obtain the advantages of broadband and low dispersion transmissions over the light-conductive fibers with such components as well, there exists the requirement that these components likewise have low dispersion. Therefore, they are usually constructed as planar waveguide films because this technique permits the required waveguides and components to be easily produced in an integrated manner.